This has been a HUGE year for animals. And it wouldn't have been possible without you. :) Celebrate this year's best bits with our year in review vid:

If you shared our campaigns, went to a rally, emailed a politician, handed out flyers, made a pledge against cruelty or did anything else to speak up for animals this year then give yourself a massive high five!

Next year, we'll be keeping up the fight for a better world for animals. To make sure you don't miss any of the action in 2014, join the Unleashed Action Team.

Merry Christmas! Here's a minute of PURE joy:

ICYMI, these were the highlights:

0.17: TINY TINY PINK PIGGY NOSES!
0.30: OMG! SCRATCHING ON THE STICK! SQUEEE!
0.36: Kisses for mummy :)
0.55: TINY TINY PINK PIGGY TAILS!
1.02: OMG! ALL SLEEPING TOGETHER! SQUEEE!

It's a Christmas miracle that these little piglets are alive and well and will get to live out their days freely and happily. Mumma Pig, aka Wonder Woman, was rescued along with two other runaway pigs in September of this year. The team at Edgar's Mission soon realised that they had saved not three but 11 lives when Mumma Pig gave birth to 8 little pink parcels of joy :)

Guess what? You too can save the life of a piggy this festive season. It's as easy as signing the pledge to have a pork-free Christmas. And when you do, you'll receive a bunch of awesome cruelty-free recipes to have all the family drooling at the dinner table. Click here to help pigs now.

Oh, and also...

!!! :D

P.S. The 8 piglets are named after Santa's reindeer! Why will you be pardoning a pig this Christmas? Leave a comment to let us know your top reason.

Thong weather is here. And I could not be happier! If you're a lover of good thong weather - like me - you'll know the importance of a good pair of pluggers.

And we just so happen to have 4 pairs of malc&andi organic rubber thongs to giveaway!

Yep, you read that right. They're organic. AND they're biodegradable. Which means you could pretty much eat them if you wanted to. (But don't.)

This is great news because while you and I know that plastic isn't food (except for that one time I bit into a decoration apple), birds sometimes don't. And the plastic that we humans use can cause serious problems for birds, when it's not thrown away properly. Check this out:

This trailer is a good reminder of how the choices we make everyday are powerful. Something as simple as litter is having a massive impact on the lives of animals. So by making sure you chuck rubbish in the bin and by choosing biodegradable options you can ensure that you're helping to keep both animals and the environment safe.

So, to win yourself a super soft pair of biodegradable natural rubber thongs (in the colour of your choosing) I want to hear about one choice you've made to help protect animals from suffering. Pop it in the comments below and you could be one of 4 winners :)

Comp closes: Sunday 19th January. Winners can choose any pair from available stock.

P.S. malc&andi have an awesome range of hats, sunnies and accessories as well so you can be fully decked for summer in ethical goods. AND, you'll be happy to know that they donate 5% of all profits to animal charities, including us :) Check out the range here.

#8 ...two men kicked and shoved him, trying to knock him over...

#18 ...as he tried to run, he tripped and fell forward, landing heavily on his head...

#9 ...the slaughterman paused, whilst cutting into his throat, to pose for a photo...

Each of these stories of Australian bulls were filmed by local people in Gaza during the 2013 Festival of Sacrifice and uploaded to YouTube. They, along with 19 others, make up the 22 cases of live export cruelty exposed by Animals Australia this week.

Read enough? Click here to take action for Australian animals.

The live export industry would prefer you didn't see these images. But these animals deserve to have their stories told. Because none of this should ever have happened.

The suffering of these animals show how easily live export regulations – which are supposed to protect them - can be disregarded. The two major political parties in our country still support live export. BUT they also say that regulations must be met and animals must be treated 'humanely'.

The Gaza files clearly show that the system is failing to protect animals from cruelty. That's where you come in. We need your help to get this critical evidence into the hands of your political representative and urge them to stop live exporters from putting animals at risk of such horrendous abuse. Do you accept this mission? Click here to deliver the stories of these 22 Australian bulls to your Federal MP.

OMG. Picking a winner for the Give A Stuff competition was one of the hardest things I’ve had to do. Because in truth, everyone who entered this comp is a winner for having such wonderful, compassionate people in your lives.

I absolutely loved hearing your stories but in the end there is only one prize to giveaway and this lovely entry by the The Kind Cook has taken the vegan cake (so to speak):

Congratulations to The Kind Cook! You and your 4 year old son will be receiving two new Give A Stuff family members :).

However, there were SO many beautiful entries (click here to read them all) so here are a few special mentions:

• Iaserrenagade78's friend Stef, who attends all the Ban Live Export rallies and looks after abandoned cats.
• Meli's friend Emily who has set up an elephant sanctuary in Thailand! (Wow!)
• Vegan91's mum who is making cruelty-free choices and has rescued battery hens and given them a happy home, AND
• BreeOD's 'brother' Max the seeing eye-dog who wasn't cut out for the job, but was luckily adopted by BreeOD's family :)

I couldn’t have said it better than RebeccaC did in her comment - it's so powerful to have an ally to stand alongside you when it comes to making a difference for animals. So everyone is #winning in my books :) 

If you'd still like to get a Give a Stuff animal for your loved one, you can! Click here to order from their website. Otherwise, we'll have some more free stuff to giveaway VERY soon so stay tuned!